Discussion: Quantitative Research Designs
Discussion: Quantitative Research Designs
Question Description
Quantitative Research Designs
To find the best information on a topic, you must not only develop a question and search for resources, but you must also understand how to evaluate the value of the resources that you find. There are various methods for evaluating resources, such as using the hierarchy of evidence, which you learned about in Week 4 of this course. Another factor to consider when evaluating resources is the appropriateness of the research design. Understanding how research designs influence study quality is critical for analyzing resources when conducting a literature review or locating evidence for practice.
In this Discussion, you will look at various research designs and evaluate how they have been used to investigate a specific topic. You
also think about how to choose an appropriate research design.
To get ready:
Examine the information on quantitative research designs in the course text. Pay close attention to the information in Box 9.1, “Guidelines for Critiquing Research Designs in Quantitative Studies,” on page 230 of the course text.
Choose a topic from the list below, then search the Walden Library for two different quantitative research studies on that topic:
Stress in caregivers
Children’s Anxiety
Obstructive sleep apnea
Depression in first-year college students
Problems with rural health care
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Veterans with traumatic brain injury
Environmental contaminants’ health effects
Bipolar illness
End-of-life ethical issues
Alternative therapy
Identify the type of quantitative research design used for each of the sources you choose and assess whether it is the best approach to the research.
Consider the consequences of selecting an inappropriate design for a research study.
By Day 3
Post the topic you chose, the sources you identified, and the quantitative research design used in each. Examine the appropriateness of the design and back up your observations with information from the Learning Resources. Discuss the consequences of selecting an inappropriate design for a research study.
You should proofread your paper. However, do not rely solely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part, and your grade will suffer as a result. Papers with a high number of misspelled words and grammatical errors will be penalized. Before submitting your paper, go over it in silence and then aloud, and make any necessary changes. It is often beneficial to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Uncorrected mistakes are preferable to handwritten corrections.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point typeface (10 to 12 characters per inch). Smaller or compressed type, as well as papers with narrow margins or single spacing, are difficult to read. It is preferable to allow your essay to exceed the recommended number of pages rather than attempting to compress it into fewer pages.
Large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are also unacceptable, waste trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced, and have a one-inch margin on all four sides of each page. When submitting hard copies, use white paper and print with dark ink. It will be difficult to follow your argument if it is difficult to read your essay.
-Order nursing papers written by our nursing assignment gurus for an A++ nursing paper.